Calgary Flames goaltender Jonas Hiller exited Wednesday night’s game against the Ottawa Senators in the third period following a violent collision with Sens forward Bobby Ryan.
Following the collision, Hiller left the game and Joni Ortio came in and finished the game off. Ryan also briefly exited the game, but returned to the ice before the end of the game and took the Senators’ first shootout attempt.
After the game, Flames coach Bob Hartley called it a lower body for Hiller, which is a bit surprising (though not outlandish) when you watch the video because the first point of contact is Hiller’s head and it looks a bit like his back arches in an awkward way as he’s pushed back into the net on the play.
Ryan took a penalty on the play, even though it appears that he was pushed into Hiller by Michael Frolik. After the game Ryan told Don Brennan of the Ottawa Sun, “I won’t comment too much other than it was an horrendous call.”
Ryan was a little sour because of the Frolik push and that it was just 12 seconds after that play that Sam Bennett scored for the Flames to tie it up and send the game to overtime.
"It's lower body. We're going to get him checked tomorrow. We don't know much right now." – Bob Hartley on Jonas Hiller's status
— Calgary Flames (@NHLFlames) October 29, 2015
Watch the play below.
The Flames wound up losing the game in a shootout, 5-4.
Through six games this season, Hiller has a save percentage of just .861, the worst among the three goaltenders who have played for the Flames this season. Aside from Ortio, Karri Ramo also played for the team this year — in fact he was the opening night starter — but he was waived and sent to AHL Stockton.
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